Wino Wednesday: Wooly Mammoth, “Mammoth Bones”
That riff! It’s been a while since I’ve had occasion to put on 2006’s The Temporary Nature, the lone studio full-length from Washington, D.C. trio Wooly Mammoth, but it doesn’t take long into 11-minute closer “Mammoth Bones” before that riff re-implants itself on the brain. Released on Underdogma, The Temporary Nature followed Wooly Mammoth‘s 2004 split with The Hidden Hand, Night Letters. The two bands did a lot of shows together back then as well, so as they were putting The Temporary Nature together and jamming out the ending of “Mammoth Bones,” one can only imagine it wasn’t much of a leap for the band to wonder how it might sound with Wino ripping a ridiculously awesome solo over top.
Wooly Mammoth also put out an EP through Underdogma in 2002 called Ten Ton Baby, but for my money, The Temporary Nature was where it was at for them. Fuller tonally, the band had caught on early to some of the post-Mastodon hugeness of sound that soon enough would be ubiquitous. They’d go on to dirty up their sound some by replacing bassist Kyle Connolly with Jason Daniloski of underrated stoner/grinders Meatjack — who was so. fucking. loud. on stage (it was awesome) — but guitarist/vocalist Zac Eller and drummer Phil Adler, who’d later join Maryland-based instrumentalists Nitroseed, always seemed to know what they were going for in their songs, proffering modern heavy rock with more classic influence than it might’ve seemed on first listen, and in the case of “Mammoth Bones,” a stomp that few at the time were prepared to match.
Like a lot of groups before and since, they maybe didn’t get the attention they were looking for from the album and fizzled out. Not sure what became of Eller or Daniloski (if the name looks familiar, his brother and former Meatjack bandmate, Brian Daniloski, plays in Darsombra), but Wooly Mammoth were a quality band in their day, and if nothing else, I’m glad to have the excuse to revisit the irresistible nod of “Mammoth Bones.”
Hope you enjoy and have a great Wino Wednesday:
